Pretty worried about Jeff Faine starting at C(presumably) but if he can hold his own I think we've got a pretty good shot in this game. Really wished we could have Dunlap in this game as I think he could do work against their OL with Bryant Mckinnie and Oher on the edges. Hopefully MJ can continue to get some pressure and get off some blocks to force Flacco to move around. The secondary worries me especially with a speedster like Torrey Smith.

We better be able to get a solid run game going or this could be a long night. I don't expect it to be great but as long as we can make the back end play honest and respect it I think we'll be fine. Curious to see how our WRs outside of AJ perform. Hopefully we will make it a point to get Jermaine involved early and oftern.

We certainly have the talent to be able to win but this is about as tough as it gets as far as openers go. On the road against an incredibly talented squad.

High hopes but I'm gonna definitely try to temper my expectations. Hopefully we can get some sort of pass rush going both inside and out or perhaps I will have to eat my crow about MJ93 to Bengals78! Either way its one game and one game only WHO DEY!

Not really getting any good pressure from anywhere as of yet aside from Geno and some inconsistent rushes from MJ. Skuta looks pretty good at end though I like that wrinkle. We need Dunlap sooo bad right now. Luga totally stopped Howard from picking off that pass earlier too.

EDIT: Well Ill gladly eat my crow now. MJ hasn't been much of a factor and our pass rush as a whole has been pretty abysmal. They need to stop taking out Geno to put in Still though. Take out Peko if anything.

Not really getting any good pressure from anywhere as of yet aside from Geno and some inconsistent rushes from MJ. Skuta looks pretty good at end though I like that wrinkle. We need Dunlap sooo bad right now. Luga totally stopped Howard from picking off that pass earlier too.

In addition I feel that Maualuga just is playing plain stale out there. He has fell for almost every play fake and has overextended on the run so many times its sad.

The secondary (especially safety) has let the deep ball open far to much and the safeties couldnt cover a TE if their lives depended on it. A shame.

The Ravens having that second tight end that is a viable pass catcher is really killing us. Thought they did pretty well covering Dickson who is the bigger threat but yea its still a troublesome issue for us, which is why I still think S should be our biggest priority in the offseason along with some pass rush help.

Luga I thought was decent, shoulda had that one pick for sure though. Our LBers as a whole were biting on those PA fakes to Rice all night long. I understand you need to worry about Rice but its not hard to tell when the OL isn't going downfield at all.

Rough night for sure though. Obviously need Dunlap in the worst possible way. Our OL i thought did pretty well though all things considered.

The short week scares the living hell out of me but we should def win that one at home.

The other need I forgot to mention is obviously WR. At least with Jerome we had someone who could go deep and make defenses have to account for that. Love Baby Hawk and what he can do underneath but unless Marvin Jones gets some PT and shows vertical ability that is a dire need for us as well.

The short week scares the living hell out of me but we should def win that one at home.

If the Bengals lose to the Browns at home, they might as well pack it in for the season. Idc if it is a short week. Cleveland has a rookie QB, rookie RB, and a couple rookie WRs and on top of Joe Haden won't be playing.

If the Bengals lose to the Browns at home, they might as well pack it in for the season. Idc if it is a short week. Cleveland has a rookie QB, rookie RB, and a couple rookie WRs and on top of Joe Haden won't be playing.

Wouldn't say pack it in after 2 weeks but it would be a major disappointment certainly. We need to win it and I hope we win big.

The short week scares the living hell out of me but we should def win that one at home.

The other need I forgot to mention is obviously WR. At least with Jerome we had someone who could go deep and make defenses have to account for that. Love Baby Hawk and what he can do underneath but unless Marvin Jones gets some PT and shows vertical ability that is a dire need for us as well.

Player Ratings

Dalton - D.

This one is kinda hard because in the first half I thought he played pretty good against a really good Ravens defense. However as soon as the Ravens got up by two TD's it was over. The mistakes started to fly out and the whole offense unraveled. He also overthrew Green a couple times in the first.

BJGE - A.

Ok A? yea I thought the Law Firm played really well. Had it been a closer game he would have gotten more carries. He is a better back than Benson. Benson's forte was to always just run into the back of the Offense Line and roll off in hopes to grab some yardage. Green-Ellis found holes and even made some solid plays out there. I thought he did very good against a really good Ravens Defense.

A.J. Green - C.

He wasn't amazing and he wasn't bad. He made some key plays early on and then kinda got covered really tightly the rest of the way. I don't blame that on him. Wasn't much of a play after catch threat though. Also dropped some but not all his fault.

Hawkins - A.

Felt he made some great plays after the catch. Looked fast and reliable. If it wasn't for him putting his knee down on that one play he would have busted for a big play.

Rest of the WR - F.

I was unimpressed. Felt Tate was nonexistent and Binns was unable to break coverage. They were barely even targets.

Gresham - F.

Practically non-existent as well. We need him to be part of the game more if we are to have an effective passing game.

Oline on the run - B.

I felt they opened holes, especially the interior. Its hard to judge for me since we were behind the whole game but I felt when it came to the run we held up well. Felt Faine played well.

Oline on the Pass - C-.

Sometimes they looked great against a good Ravens D, then they looked horrible.

Defense

Hall - D.

He made a play here and there but played some pretty bad redzone D. I felt he could have played alot better. He was def mismatched sometimes. His run support and short pass defense was good though.

Newman - F.

He just played crappily. Was beaten alot...played soft coverage and got beat alot.

Clements - C.

I tried to follow Clements the best I could...sometimes I lost track because the Bengals switched players out alot. I felt he played good when switched in a safety...making a good PD. However I can't judge him well as I didnt get to see him much or at least felt I didnt.

Nelson - C.

Bit on fakes alot and left Corners on Islands. Made some plays here and there but overall was lackluster.

Mays. - F.

Penalty waiting to happen. Killed multiple drive ending plays with his penalties. Stupid penalties. Also was non existent on the field. Probably would never hear his name if it wasnt for the penalties.

Rest of Secondary - D.

Alot of others fed in and out. Jones had a good play on a sack but thats about it.

Howard - B.

Of all the Linebackers Howard played the best. Almost had an Interception which would have changed the game early on but Rey M knocked it from his hands. Had a sack and played the run about the best compared to other LB's. However he still bit on the fakes too much.

Rey - F.

We can't give this guy a pass any more. He should be a leader on the defense and set examples. Instead he looks lost and bites on every play. He was taken down by Leach (FB) on every run play that wasn't faked.

Atkins - A.

The only Defensive lineman that really got any pressure. Played pretty good, but that is expected from Geno. The middle opened for some runs sometimes but I blame that on Peko and the other DT's

Rest of the Dline - D.

They were pretty bad on pass pressure, and often let Ray Rice run all over them, MJ was stood up by Oher all night. They should have played better.

One thing I will disagree with is the OL in pass pro. At the end of a game when your down like that and hurrying to try to catch up the D knows what's coming and is able to pin their ears back and send the house whenever they want basically. The QB HAS to get rid of the ball ASAP and he didn't do that because no one was open. I'd say prolly half their sacks were more coverage sacks than anything else. The OL played well against a great DL. One of the few real bright spots in this game actually.

And AJ played fine he did nothing wrong really. That catch that was called a drop was horrible and it was a momentum killer as well. Dalton also missed him more than once deep. Aside from him and Hawk though, they were pretty much non existent. The Ravens made it so AJ couldn't beat us, doubling him the entire night and it worked.

Leon's gonna get a bad rap for this game but really the only play(or one of the few) I thought he looked bad on was the opening play. He got burnt deep which he is want to do but I thought he rebounded nicely. Played that TD to Pitta about as well as anyone could, guy just made a hell of a catch.

I agree, our secondary needs so much help. Clements and Nelson worked, they were great additions. But adding guys like Newman and Mays has only hurt us. If we want to blame pass rush, I could get on board with that, but it's not the main problem.

You can't blame Dalton though, not yet at least. When we started the 2nd half, we brought the game within 4 points. Then our defense trotted back onto the field and gave up another 7 points. When you're constantly playing catch up, it turns every possession into a pressure situation.

Playing from behind is hard enough, but it's so ridiculously hard to try and come back when you know every offensive possession by the opposing team is going to set you back another 7 points.

I hope Kirkpatrick is capable of helping us this season, because we need it.

I think the main thing I learned tonight is the Bengals are required to draft a pass rushing DE or a SS in the 1st round.

This is pretty true. Mays is a liability and needs to be benched for the season. When Kirkpatrick is healthy enough to play put him in at CB and have Clements play Safety. I think that would be an improvement. It just sucks that we have needed quality safeties year in and year out and we still don't have them.

We've got one in Reggie Nelson but ya you're right the other S spot has been neglected for years. I guess I can understand not valuing the position highly enough to take one in the first but you'd figure we'd draft one in the top 3 rounds at some point. They thought they could take a chance on the athletically gifted Mays and so far it hasn't look good. Not ready to say he should be 'benched for the season' but he certainly has to show better instincts out there if he wants to continue to stay on the field. I say that penalty he had on Dickson was weak sauce though. He was seemingly benched for awhile after that as Miles seemed to be in a lot.

We've got one in Reggie Nelson but ya you're right the other S spot has been neglected for years. I guess I can understand not valuing the position highly enough to take one in the first but you'd figure we'd draft one in the top 3 rounds at some point. They thought they could take a chance on the athletically gifted Mays and so far it hasn't look good. Not ready to say he should be 'benched for the season' but he certainly has to show better instincts out there if he wants to continue to stay on the field. I say that penalty he had on Dickson was weak sauce though. He was seemingly benched for awhile after that as Miles seemed to be in a lot.

Yea I don't think Marvin cared to much for the hit and pretty much took him out after it.

I just don't get how the guy is deemed defenseless and the S can't hit him when the ball hit the receivers hands? IMO that is almost the exact same thing as a ball that is tipped at LOS, he should be able to hit him without recourse unless its helmet to helmet (which it clearly was NOT). Like Mays is supposed to stop mid-strike because the guy couldn't catch it. Within that second he's supposed to hold back? Its horse **** IMO.

Don't really wanna keep defending the guy because he is pretty clearly not very savvy but I for one like the fact that he tries to rip people's heads off. He needs to stop hitting his own teammates, but still.

Yea I would agree T. Howard is our best LBer and it's a shame to see that happen to him. On the other hand we get to see the Tazer start on Sunday and we did resign Muck to fill his roster spot. Surprised he was still out there but whatevs.